The 10 most exciting games still to come in 2014

We've already had a tremendous start to the holiday season, between the likes of Destiny, FIFA 15, and Forza Horizon 2, but your thumbs will have plenty of reasons to keep twiddling analogue sticks and mashing buttons for the rest of the year.

Several major and rather amazing-looking games are still due out over the next several weeks before 2015 greets us, and we've picked the 10 most enticing entries on the release schedule - from futuristic shooting to open-world racing and even whimsical platform action.

1. Assassin's Creed Unity

We enjoyed living a pirate's life in last year's Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, but we've got an itch to explore a big, historical city – and Unity delivers in spades with French Revolution-era Paris.

Even better? The campaign is playable in online co-op with up to four assassins in total, meaning you can carry out even more elaborate assaults with real-life comrades backing you up. And it's only for new-gen hardware, too.

2. Sunset Overdrive

What happens when Insomniac Games (Ratchet & Clank) tries its hand at a brash, open-world action game? Utter, delectable chaos – and candy-coated, to boot.

More like Crackdown than Grand Theft Auto, Sunset Overdrive is a manic fever-dream of a game, tasking you with detonating mutants with wacky guns while grinding on surfaces, leaping with abandon, and having a blast. Seriously, watch the trailer.

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3. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Last year's Ghosts was a bit of a low point for the Call Of Duty series, delivering a competent but rather unremarkable retread through tired ideas. But Advanced Warfare looks a lot better.

For starters, it pushes things much further forward into the future: 2054, to be precise.

It's brimming with more crazy gadgets than a James Bond film and also has a strong - and welcome - focus on narrative (look, Kevin Spacey!). Factor in a stunning new game engine and you've got every reason to be excited about Call Of Duty for the first time in ages.

4. Halo: The Master Chief Collection

We rarely get too excited about a re-release (excepting GTA5), but The Master Chief Collection just blows us away with both the quantity of what's on offer and attention to detail.

The package features Halo 1-4, all remastered for the new-gen hardware and packing in the entirety of their original contents. That means that as well as the single-player story you also get each game's multiplayer package intact and playable online.

As a further - and very welcome - bonus, many of the Halo 2 maps have also been reimagined for the collection. So whether you loved the games first time round or are one of the 16 people in the world who's never played them, there's no excuse for not giving them another spin.

5. The Crew

From the developers behind underrated racing gems such as Test Drive Unlimited and Driver: San Francisco, Ubisoft's The Crew is perhaps the most ambitious racer on the horizon.

Single-player and online multiplayer action are merged in this jaunt across the United States, with coast-to-coast cruising and all manner of Burnout-inspired arcade antics along the way. Here's hoping it lives up to its massive potential.